Cerity Partners Lands $1.4B Advisor Teams From Shufro Rose

Cerity Partners has picked up two advisory teams managing a combined $1.4 billion from Shufro Rose & Co., a New York firm founded in 1938 that has now lost every one of its advisory groups this year.

The Contant Group and the Wacht-Leit Group will join Cerity under its brand, according to Cerity. The buyer, also headquartered in New York, oversees more than $160 billion in client assets.

The move effectively hollows out Shufro Rose. The firm's website lists four advisory teams. Two of them — the Shufro-Glass Group, managing $760 million, and the Kaminsky-Silverman Group, managing $554 million — left for Wealth Enhancement in July. This week's departures take the remaining two.

Shufro Rose managed roughly $2.5 billion in assets before the July defections, according to its most recent Form ADV. Representatives from the firm did not respond to a request for comment about its future.

The departing advisors bring long tenures and deep client relationships. According to John Contant, principal and senior financial advisor at Shufro Rose, "clients will receive the same personalized guidance from the same trusted team" at Cerity, backed by more "resources, expertise and capabilities."

SEC records show Stephen Leit joined Shufro Rose in 1989. Contant joined in 1996, immediately after graduating from Lehigh University, according to the firm's site, and became a principal in 2004. Harvey Wacht first registered in the late 1970s and held numerous registrations before joining Shufro Rose in 2001. The average client relationship across the groups has lasted 21 years, according to Cerity.

The transaction had full deal machinery behind it. Houlihan Lokey represented both groups in the transition, Katz Teller served as their legal counsel, and Lowenstein Sandler provided legal counsel to Cerity Partners.

Shufro Rose traces its roots to 1938, when Salwyn Shufro founded the firm. According to its website, it now works with the fourth generation of many families that became clients decades ago, offering wealth management, financial, estate, tax and retirement planning, and risk management services as needed. Gregory Shufro, the founder's grandson, led the Shufro-Glass Group that departed in July alongside Steven Glass.

For Cerity, the deal extends an aggressive run of growth. Founded in 2009, the firm serves high- and ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families, business owners and institutions with financial, investment, tax and retirement planning. Earlier this month, Cerity agreed to acquire Gilbert & Cook, a West Des Moines, Iowa-based firm with about $2 billion in assets. That deal is expected to close at the end of this month.

The two transactions together would add roughly $3.4 billion in client assets to Cerity's platform within a single month, while Shufro Rose — an 86-year-old family firm — faces an uncertain future with no advisory teams left under its umbrella.